I wish more people would read this. I have spent the past four years bouncing from casual to temp to casual to contract back to casual at the CBC. The Corp will specifically schedule you 'off' for three weeks once they realize you're verging on 13 weeks straight service, and therefore should receive a boost in your employment status (or at least benefits). That takes you back to square one, over and over. It is maddening, especially when you hear things like "all current permanent employees will not be affected" by the company's proposal to employ more cheap people like me. I mean, I am not even an employee. I don't even merit that, after four years. At best, I am a "temporary" worker, with constant reminders of my sub-par status. Why stick with it? Well, the work is clean, I *really* love reporting, and I make a whack more money than I would had I stayed at the private TV station. But it would sure be nice to not be locked out right now. To be able to plan investigative pieces. To file FOIs and access to informations and not worry about am-I-going-to-be-around in a month to follow them up. To keep in touch with key contacts. To maybe develop some beat reporting. Heck, to be able to plan a family! (A maternity leave would put me way in the red for a couple years, but at least I'm not one of my pregnant colleagues, who are both in a very precarious position on the picket line these days) I don't honestly believe this lockout will make all these magical things happen. But I sure hope it gets better than it is for us now. Not bothering to cross her fingers Jen Q